Client-based experiential learning and the librarian: Information literacy for the real world

ABSTRACT

Business schools have increasingly turned to client-based experiential learning to better prepare their graduates with skills and abilities that translate to the workplace. The shift from academic learning to experiential learning requires a corresponding shift in the way librarians approach information literacy. This article explores this trend through the literature and through personal interviews and proposes ways in which library instruction, collection development, and liaison relationships can be tailored to meet the needs of experiential learners.

KEYWORDS:

• Business education
• experiential learning
• information literacy
• liaison relationships
• licensing agreements

Sidebar: Perspectives from experiential learning program directors

Roger McCarty has been director of Experiential Learning at Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management since 2007. He previously worked for The Dow Chemical Company, spanning 30 years in a variety of positions ranging from chemical engineer to director of New Business Development to Director of Staffing and Learning.

Matthew Lynall is clinical associate professor at Purdue University's Krannert School of Management, where he directs the Experiential Learning Initiative that he founded in 2009. He received a PhD in organizational behavior at the University of Western Ontario. Previously he was a partner in a management consulting firm and worked in telecommunications and automotive metal fabrication.

• What do you see as the role of experiential learning in business education today, and how have you seen that role evolve over time?

• McCarty: There has been a progression from just teaching principles, to tools, to cases, and then to actual project work over the last 40 years since I got my engineering degree and MBA. Since I came to BYU we have significantly increased the number of graduate management students participating in experiential work/consulting programs from 20 to 50 students per year (when I came) to more than 150 students participating in experiential work programs per year. In 2008 when we started experimenting with undergraduate experiential work programs there were no students involved in programs. In 2016 we will have more than 1,400 students involved in On Campus Internships alone.

• Lynall: Since we launched the Experiential Learning Initiative (ELI) in 2009, approximately 75% of each subsequent MBA cohort has participated in one of the experiential learning programs. The main program is Corporate Consulting, in which students provide consulting services to major corporations affiliated with Purdue as recruiters of research partners. We also have a Technology Commercialization program for students to work with faculty and graduate researchers to develop commercialization plans for their research. More than 800 students have undertaken more than 160 projects. Since its initiation, ELI has evolved from an MBA-only to an interdisciplinary program, which is open to graduate students across Purdue—students from seven colleges and 15 academic units (i.e., schools, departments) have joined the MBA students on the various projects. This interdisciplinary approach is a core element and, we believe, an essential component of business education. By providing the opportunity for management students to work closely with their counterparts in science, technology, and engineering they all experience the challenge and benefit of applying multiple perspectives to the project.

• How does experiential learning change the research and information needs of students?

• Lynall: Unlike traditional academic instruction where the required information is provided (e.g., cases, industry notes), students are required to determine by themselves their information requirements and identify appropriate information resources. Usually there is a short and steep learning curve as the students use secondary research to familiarize themselves with the project sponsor and their market and industry environment before directly engaging with the company to finalize the scope of the project.

• McCarty: The students need much more practical information to meet the needs of real business. It becomes less about the numbers, and more about the interpretation of information. Students go from collecting data, to managing data, to comparing data, to integrating data findings, to synergizing data elements, to challenging the individual data sources and findings based on the insights gained through the research. Students are much more focused on gaining insight, understanding, and clarity towards specific recommendations of their own making; not just trying to figure out what the professor thinks the answer should be.

• What role does the effective use of information play in student decision making and success?

• McCarty: Decision making based on insight gained from information, like every other skill or talent, is developed through instruction and practice. The professor can teach, demonstrate, and critique, but the student cannot play a trombone until he picks it up and tries it out. The students need a variety of information types available to help them move from rudimentary information retrieval and analysis to sophisticated information creation through multiple information sources. So having information sources that are prepackaged is valuable for the early learner, while more technically based information requiring significant analysis and sophisticated tools must be available for the more advanced experiential learner. Also, as we reach into the business world for our problem sources, we need a wide variety of information sources to meet the diverse needs of our clients.

• Lynall: The projects require the students to get quickly up to speed on the company, its market, competition, and other factors that affect its strategy and performance. This contextual understanding is essential for the students to successfully structure and execute their projects. Opinions and beliefs are not the basis for the project sponsors' decisions and actions that the students will be informing. Our students understand that their findings and recommendations must be based on facts and analysis. We use a hypothesis-driven approach to ensure purposeful collection and analysis of data.

• How can librarians best support experiential learning programs?

• Lynall: Following the proverb: “You give a poor man a fish and you feed him for a day. You teach him to fish and you give him an occupation that will feed him for a lifetime,” the role of the librarians is to show the students how to find the information, rather than do the research for them. As a major university, we have access to valuable (and expensive) databases and information resources. Before the semester, we provide the librarians with descriptions of the projects that the students will be undertaking so that they can be prepared for the students and have already identified databases and other resources that are pertinent to the projects. One of our librarians also participates in a class for each semester's cohort to provide them with an overview of the library system and the resources that are typically used to support the experiential learning projects.

• McCarty: Having a diverse and progressively more sophisticated set of information sources is critical. Librarians should work with the experiential leaders and professors to determine the types of data sources most useful. Then as the students work with business clients they will learn of more information sources that will be valuable in the business world. The librarian needs to be flexible and adapt to these evolving needs over time. The students may become the best source for new and cutting edge information sources as they work in experiential learning situations. The librarians need to be constantly learning and adapting to the information needs of the experiential learners.

• Can you share any stories that illustrate students benefiting from librarian support?

• McCarty: There have been many times when students came to me and said they were not able to complete their projects because they could not find information about the market, industry, or competitors. I showed them how to start using the databases and immediately found relevant data. Then I sent them to the librarians and the librarians were able to help them even more focus their searches on rich sources of data and information. The librarians have been so helpful that I have a Business Library link on my Experiential Learning website for all of the student teams. Leticia Camacho [a librarian] has identified specific databases for specific types of data. We also have the contact information so they can set up meetings with her. I show this library link to every class, and many teams use the resource. One student kept track of the reports he used that had a fee associated with the report if he were not a student. He calculated that the reports he used for his project would have cost the company more than $20,000 and that does not count the subscription-based databases where no cost was assigned to the [specific] reports he used (let me also reiterate that we explain exactly how information retrieved from the databases can be used in reports for the company sponsor without infringing on [licensing agreements]). We have also widely advertised the training and orientation classes offered by Andy Spackman [another librarian] and many students have attended and valued the information and access. I have also posted past training handouts on my website to give more resources to the students before the classes are offered that semester.

  We also found that we had a reoccurring need for information about the chemicals and plastics industries due to the companies that were giving us projects. The library worked with us to obtain access to [a specific database] as a resource for our students and greatly increased the relevant data available to our experiential learning students for their projects. The proactive efforts by the librarian were greatly appreciated by the experiential leadership and the students.

  Recently I have discovered the geospatial resources at the library and we are using them also. We are doing a project for Papa Murphy's Pizza where we have identified the demographic characteristics of the most profitable [store locations] and used regressions to find the key correlated demographics. Then we used the geospatial resources to identify the most profitable location tracts for new stores in every state and city. Then we identified the best intersection in the cities and tracks to place the stores. While Papa Murphy's owned the software and data for this geospatial process, they had never used the software in this manner as far as we are aware. So the students not only learned a tremendous amount, they were able to open new concepts for the company sponsor. The students never would have been able to utilize these valuable resources without the guidance of the librarian that helped them.

• Lynall: We expect the students to arrive at their first meeting with the project sponsor with an understanding of their business, so that they can focus on discussing the scope of the project and how it fits within the company's strategic priorities. One team was so well prepared that they delivered a presentation to the executive sponsor and management team of an industrial electronics company summarizing their initial library research which so impressed the client that it was incorporated into the company's employee orientation and onboarding program.

  On another project, involving the adoption of 3D printing for a manufacturer's slow moving spare and replacement parts, through library research the team (with little prior experience in this area) was able to provide a comprehensive briefing on the current and projected capability of 3D printing technology and a highly refined set of criteria for the selection of appropriate parts.

  On a project for a cancer research center, a team that had no prior experience or expertise in the life sciences amazed their project sponsor with their understanding and insights into the drug discovery process. In developing a financial model for out-licensing of drug compounds, they were able to obtain data on over 200 licensing deals related to colorectal cancer that resulted in recommendations that caused the organization to radically change its approach to licensing.

• What are your predictions for the future of experiential learning and student information needs?

• Lynall: I believe that experiential learning will be an increasingly important part of the business school curriculum. Ours is a graduate program and we need to provide a similar experience to our undergraduate students. Since the university library system supports multiple constituencies with different needs to access, process, and store information, there will be a need to develop a portal and repository tailored to the needs of experiential learning programs.

• McCarty: I think the need for information will only continue to grow in experiential learning as we move into the future. But I believe the largest needs will be: (1) The identification of relevant and recent data sources; (2) The tools and processes to analyze the data that is found; (3) The acquisition of insight and understanding, not just data; (4) The ability to quantify the credibility of sources in an ever-burgeoning information marketplace; (5) The ability to identify when data is relevant and appropriate to meet their needs, and when insights and data found in the resources of the library are not appropriate for use in the student's project. This evolution to more sophisticated use of data sources will greatly increase the value created by the students in their experiential learning projects and their ability to use data in their future careers.